


Pelargir

by Dwimordene



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Drama, War of the Ring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2010-12-04
Packaged: 2018-04-06 08:35:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 4,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4215091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dwimordene/pseuds/Dwimordene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the tradition of 'we have met the enemy, and they are us', as the Corsairs sail ever nearer, Pelargir struggles not to implode before ever they arrive. Written using prompts from Tolkien_Weekly's Potter's Wheel challenge as a kind of Advent Calendar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. March 13, 3019: Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

What  _did_  happen at Pelargir? (See author's notes for specific genesis of question.) Drabble the first...

* * *

Dawnlight seeped through the unhinged door, illuminating death. Stiff bodies lay still, bloodstains seeming strange, lawless shadows.  _Like us_ , Šuraš thought.  _We should've died._    
  
Instead, they grieved, Ihna'a rocking wordlessly. Šuraš crawled to their brother, closed his eyes, whispered: "Thy roses testify"; then taking Ihna'a's bloody hand and the dagger, urged:   
  
"Come."  
  
Outside, smoke hung heavy; north and west, war still sounded. But they, shade-like, passed amid silent streets and corpses fallen in fight or flight 'til Wainwrights' Square.   
  
There men and boys, soldiers and citizens lay in mounds of butchered parts.   
  
" _Ahaya!_ " breathed Šuraš.  
  
Thus had Pelargir been won.


	2. The Precepts, 'The Book of Concords': Coil

_There were a sister and brother in Vhadri. He married, siring two sons; she married, bearing two sons. He prospered as a merchant; she brought her family wealth with her weaving._

_Then, there was strife between Vhadri and the Hita. The Hita took hostage the parents of the sister and brother, and ordered: "Send fit ransom for them."_

_He sent two slaves with gold; she sent her sons with gold. To the sister the Hita released the parents, who blessed her: "She did not forget who gave her life!"_

_Her sons, though children, they cremated as warriors grown._

* * *

_[_The Precepts_ (scroll down)](</i>http://www.henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter_view.cfm?stid=8531&spordinal=30). _


	3. February, 3019: Throw

_To Dol Amroth, the coasts; to Pelargir, the river – the river at all costs._

The Steward thus had laid upon that city no arms-tithe to guard Minas Tirith, but left Pelargir one duty: hold the river, that more men than Pelargir could send should come.

The waters are wide, its coasts long – Dol Amroth and Pelargir had consulted, and placed squads of Dol Amroth ships around the largest harbors, put half Pelargir's fleet at the throat of the Ethir.

Pelargir prepared: stone-shot, arrows, guards upon walls. And in the Old Haradric Quarter, whither some looked askance, the city quartered garrisons.


	4. March 2, 3019: Coil

They called themselves Varendur and Menarion, and said two more would come. Šuraš's father, Chadhi, fretted, but took his four sons into his bedchamber, banishing his wife to Šuraš's and Ihna'a's chamber.

"The boys' beds I'll surrender, but not yours – though you be elsewhere, it breeds scandal. Be gracious," Father warned them. "They shouldn't complain of us."

Ajhinaš, ever-dignified, obeyed; Šuraš and Ihna'a strove to match their mother. But Ba-a-šuvon, their second, surly brother, complained: "What's Harad to me? I wasn't born under that Sun!"

Father struck him. "I was, so I love my duty."


	5. March 4, 3019: Coil

_Ena uban za'an ahn-bairtan halota'ane din_ : Ba-a-šuvon wasn't alone in claiming that title. As days passed, many of Those Not Born Under That Sun looked bitterly upon Those Born Under It.

"'Tis for them the guards come," said they, and some no longer visited their neighbors. So Šuraš didn't see Aminhuški, the chandler's daughter, unless at the well, or in the market.

"Father will not let me call. Because of your parents and your oldest brother," her friend confided sadly.

"Are _they_ lodged with you?" Šuraš asked, eying the guards.

" _They_ lodge with everyone," Aminhuški said.


	6. March 5, 3019: Coil

They _did_ lodge with everyone. Thus on patrol, or off-duty in taverns, much gossip passed among guardsmen.

"His lordship should've ordered them out weeks ago," Teldas opined. "I'd not sleep there without friends."

"You mean at Dhauroš Butcher's?" Menarion asked.

His friend nodded. "He's too many kinsmen in Harad to love us well. A heart divided is untrustworthy. How's your potter?"

"As bad."

Later, though, Varendur said: "Chadhi isn't Dhauroš."

"His sons hate us!"

"Because we lodge with _them_. They're loyal."

Menarion snorted. "Morning star, evening star: loyal or no, they hate us, though we'll save their skins!"

Varendur grunted. "If Pelargir's unlucky..."


	7. March 6, 3019: Coil

Next day came a courier ship, whence a horsed messenger galloped through Pelargir. To the inner keep he rode – so anxious rumor told.

Varendur said later that Corsair ships had been sighted beyond Tolfalas: "Several squads – many, but not so many as ours."

"Good news," Chadhi said, fervently. Varendur snorted.

"For some!"

For some: Šuraš passed men gathered in mourning at the shrine, their butcher and his sons among them. Guards stood watchfully by, while diverse others looked on, scowling. Ba-a-šuvon cursed, hurried her along.

Next morn, the butcher's door bore a bloody message: _Traitor._


	8. March 7, 3019: Coil

Mother and Father were fighting. In Haradric and quietly, lest Menarion take offense.

Šuraš and Ihna'a, though, kneading dough, listened anxiously.

"'The wise mourn peace passing'!" Mother implored. "Shall we abandon Dhauroš?"

"'Wicked are the hours of war,'" Father replied. "Yet comfort Dhauroš Butcher, they will worsen!"

"Have we not both kin in Harad?" Mother retorted, ere bowing to her husband.

But when the flatbread was ready, Mother slipped some into her purse with a rue-sprig, and took their pail to draw water.

The pail returned full, but not the purse. Šuraš quietly closed it.


	9. March 2-8, 3019: Throw

Around Tolfalas they came – ships bearing Harad's standard. For a week, they skirted timidly on the horizon.

Then one night they closed. Short and bloody, that battle, and only a few Corsair ships escaped, fleeing ahead of their pursuers toward the straits about the small islands beyond the Bay.

And then they appeared: an immense host of Haradric ships, hidden among the atolls. The tables were turned: the Corsairs overwhelmed their enemies, and had the victory. Then half sailed north to blockade Dol Amroth, and half east to take the Bay.

Thirty years had passed, but Umbar would be repaid.


	10. Nai A-lehanoi Ta'alsheenoi, Briary Verses: Coil

_Tell of Nuvimeb!_  
Servant most blessed  
Most high, most beloved.

_Who was Nuvimeb?_  
What tribe, what khanate  
Could claim: "She was ours"?

_Who was Nuvimeb?_  
The guest most at home  
The lowly most high  
The crosser of mountains  
The walker of deserts  
Bearer of news  
Who always returned  
To her chosen lord

_And that day she made him_  
To his own wife a stranger:  
To his enemies,  
She yielded naught.  
Twenty times twenty  
The wounds she bore,  
As a man, as a warrior.

_Who was Nuvimeb?_  
The Rose-maid of Harad,  
For love of a people  
Not her own kind.

* * *

[The _a-lehani_ (scroll down)](http://astele.co.uk/stories/chapter_view.cfm?stid=8531&spordinal=30)


	11. March 8, 3019: Coil

Finally, the crier came with orders: _Should Corsairs attack, Haradrim must keep to their homes._

Ba-a-šuvon spat; Father slapped him in rebuke.

Yet later, Father, Chodakh, his eldest, following, sought Menarion.

"Pelargir levies men with more than fourteen years – speak for us!"

"No need," Menarion answered. "The Corsairs won't come."

"But if they did?"

"Stay inside."

" _Eni chudane eni enai tarakhenu t'hole,_ " Chodakh muttered. Eyes narrowing suspiciously, Menarion ordered:

"You'll stay within. Accidents might happen, otherwise."

"This is shameful," Chadhi implored. "Pelargir is our _home_!"

Coolly came the answer: "Maybe."


	12. March 8, 3019: Coil

All around town, malaise hung like fog – thick with fear, volatile as humiliation ever was.

"See," said some, among whom many who mourned Harad; "See their contempt!"

"Because of you!" said others, and so the argument turned round and ugly. Šuraš felt unfriendly eyes upon her on her way to the well that not even Ba-a-šuvon's company could turn.

"Surely they know," Šuraš said to him, "that _you_ are with them!" Her brother snorted, caustically.

"We're Haradrim. Blood counts high."

"Maybe we deserve the guards," she said. Ba-a-šuvon bridled, but said nothing.


	13. March 9, 3019: Coil

"Maybe we deserve the guards," she'd said yesterday, and meant it, but Šuraš hadn't thought murder would justify her.

Or that Ba-a-šuvon might.

"Dhauroš is our friend," Father argued. "Dhiav's death – "

"Redeems his father's shame. Dhauroš loves another sun – I'll not mourn!"

Since arguments ended violently lately, Šuraš retreated to kitchen chores.

"What if someone takes to Ba-šu like to Dhiav?" Ihna'a worried, as they scrubbed pots.

"He'd have _a_ fight then," Šuraš sighed. Silence, then:

"He'll break with Father for murder," Ihna'a muttered fearfully.

"Hush!" she rebuked. Ihna'a flushed.

But when Ba-a-šuvon departed stormily later, tears stung Šuraš's eyes. 


	14. The Precept, 'The Golden Scrolls': Coil

_**He is obliged by his wife.** _

_Wherefore? Because without her, he should die._

 _

He should die? Because his days are numbered. That means: unless he teach, a childless man has but the count of his life's days.

Why should she obligate him? For her honor.

Wherein lies that? With her children. Say rather, her family. And with God, who gave her graces.

Is she not below him? At night always, outside often, but she is before him when she speaks at table.

_

_As she is jealous, a wise man insists not, but cedes every right. Every? All that are due._


	15. March 9, 3019: Coil

Time dragged by. Šuraš felt listless, unsettled – both together. Ihna'a babbled almost breathlessly 'til Mother sternly silenced her: "Enough!" Ihna'a bowed her head, wiped at her eyes.

"'Disaster breeds where shame goes unanswered,' but this is my house," Mother declared. "So help me!"

Rice with _zereki_ they made then, and Mother burned their leaves 'til the house smelled of burnt barberry.

At table that eve, she spoke before her husband: "I claim a mother's right."

Silence. Uncertainty from the guardsmen and her younger sons, consternation from her elder. Šuraš and Ihna'a bowed their heads.

Father sighed. "'He is obliged' – speak!"


	16. March 9, 3019: Coil

But 'twas to the guardsmen Ajhinaš spoke: "'Bitter the shieldman's duty,' yet you must swallow it – that is a mother-duty, for she teaches you to eat."

"Dark matters, mistress," Varendur said, puzzled, while Menarion eyed Ba-a-šuvon and Chodakh.

"You have sown my family's shame," Mother explained, "so you must redeem it, as farmers redeem fruit from cast-down seed."

"What nonsense – ?" Menarion began, but Varendur silenced him.

"How, lady?"

"Gondor denies my family war-duty, in your favor," Ajhinaš said, then set the bitter dish before them: "If our obedience to such edicts be not shameful, then you must be my sons."


	17. March 9, 3019: Coil

Ba-a-šuvon shot to his feet, Menarion likewise; Chodakh grabbed Ba-šu's arm, as Father snapped: "You will sit!" and Varendur: "Stay!"

Charged silence lengthened. Šuraš's heart raced; her sister fumbled her hand. But then Father laughed wryly.

"'Fear to slight a wife more than your enemy'," he said. "By my own shame cuckolded, I've now other men's sons!"

Varendur was silent, his men, also. Finally, though: "So be it!"

* * *

"You knew," Ba-a-šuvon accused Šuraš later.

"I helped save our honor," she answered, proudly. "And since you love Gondor, rejoice to have such brothers!"


	18. March 10, 3019: Throw

'Twas dark before dawn when klaxons rang: _Corsairs upon the river!_

Signal fires followed. "They've made landing," Varendur read grimly as his fellows grabbed gear. He turned to Chadhi. "They'll strike here hardest, to open the harbor. Be wise – remove to a more innerly row."

"Nay," Chadhi refused. "Our home is here."

"Then stay within!" Ajhinaš held his shield. "Thank you, lady."

"War makes hard thanks," she warned. Presenting the shield: "Your mother speaks: with it, or on it."

"Princely thanks!" exclaimed Menarion.

"Enough! To the walls," Varendur ordered. But he bowed to Ajhinaš. "Valar save you!"

Then he departed.


	19. March 10-13, 3019: Throw

Varendur prophesied rightly. The Corsairs had come up stealthily by night, and sent small craft to shore. Men ringed the city, but against the south-wall the thrust was hardest, to clear the river of hull-breaking chains. Engines they built that sent stone against the walls where the chain was housed, and archers rained flaming arrows into the streets – into Southron Town.

Four days, the battle raged, and the south-wall fell on the third.

But orders fell before it: fire must be quenched, warriors fed and arrows brought. Haradrim fought the flames, and as Dúnadan ranks thinned, took to the walls.


	20. March 12, 3019: Throw

At first, all sought to halt the flames. But the walls needed men, so women commanded the firefight. Two days, Šuraš and Ihna'a hauled buckets 'til their hands were raw, that wiser heads, like Ajhinaš, could tend the wounded.

Then came the fateful cry: "We're breached – ware!"

Consternation became chaos, as swarms of green and scarlet cloaks appeared – Pelargir's defenders and the too-familiar enemy!

Šuraš did not think – she grabbed Ihna'a's hand and fled. Amid confusion, as battle spilled through the streets, Šuraš ducked through an open door.

Ere she could close it, though, two red-cloaked men crashed through it...


	21. March 12, 3019: Throw

Terror gripped Šuraš: before the soldiers' advance, she froze. Then Ihna'a screamed.

And help answered. A man barreled through the door, right into one soldier. Something flashed redly, and Šuraš remembered herself, thrust Ihna'a aside.

"Run!" A revelation, that voice.

"Brother?" Ba-a-šuvon's head snapped up.

Fatal recognition: a blade flashed; Ba-a-šuvon jerked, blood sprayed, and swifter than fear, his killer pinned Šuraš to the wall by the throat. Vision darkening, she struggled futilely...

'Til suddenly, his grip relaxed. Lifelessly he slumped; behind him stood Ihna'a, who fell against her gasping sister, dropping Ba-šu's knife. Legs buckled: they sat and wept.


	22. March 13, 3019: Throw

_At Pelargir lay the main fleet of Umbar, fifty great ships and smaller vessels beyond count. Many of those pursued [from Lamedon] had reached the havens and brought their fear with them. Some of the ships had put off, many smaller craft were ablaze. But the Haradrim were fierce in despair – they laughed for they were a great army still._

_But Aragorn cried: "Now come!" Suddenly the Shadow Host came up like a grey tide, sweeping all away before it, for the dead needed no weapon but fear._

_Ere that dark day ended none of the enemy were left._

* * *

A/N: See <a href="http://www.henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter_view.cfm?stid=8531&spordinal=30">note 8</a> for attribution of these lines.


	23. March 13, 3019: Ghost

The sisters found Dhauroš first, resignation writ upon his face; then Menarion – so hacked and dismembered, Ihna'a vomited.

They couldn't bear then to look further. And so while the day and sounds of battle passed, they huddled undisturbed amid the bloody ruin, nigh heedless at first of tattered shades alighting. First one, then another, 'til a pale host hovered shimmering.

" _A kha-leha_!" Ihna'a whispered; Šuraš simply stared.

As they gazed, wondering, ghostly forms blurred, as if wind-raked, but one raised its wavering hand – as if to bless. Mistrustful of her eyes, Šuraš blinked.

But when she looked again, they'd disappeared.


	24. March 13, 3019: Ghost

_The Shadow Host withdrew to the shore. There they stood silent, hardly to be seen, save for a red gleam in their eyes that caught the glare of the ships that were burning. Aragorn spoke in a loud voice to the Dead: "Hear now the words of the Heir of Isildur! Your oath is fulfilled."_

_The King of the Dead stood out before the host and broke his spear and cast it down. Then he bowed low and turned away; and swiftly the grey host drew off and vanished like a mist that is driven back by sudden wind._

* * *

A/N: See <a href="http://www.henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter_view.cfm?stid=8531&spordinal=30">note 8</a> for attribution of these lines.


	25. The Red Book, The King's Copy: Ghost

_On the thirteenth of March, the Dead swept the Corsairs from their ships, driving those before Pelargir's walls into Anduin, and Pelargir's defenders cleared them from the quarters they had won. Then from the inner rows they came_ _–_ _King's men, grievously reduced._

_For fierce had been the fighting – so fierce, despite the battle's swiftness, that, their ships manned and Minas Tirith still to take, the Corsairs risked no rebellion. In the quarters they captured, they put their male captives to the sword: no Dúnadan or Vale-folk lad over ten lived; of captured Pelargirite Haradrim, not one mother's son was spared._


	26. Notes

**Throw, Coil, Ghost** : the prompts taken from [Tolkien Weekly's Potter's Wheel](http://community.livejournal.com/tolkien_weekly/715631.html) challenge. "Ghost" ended up being my guiding thread, since 'tis the season for drabbled genocide chez Dwim.

**Pelargir: Or The Curious Case of the Dog That Didn't Bark in the Night**

  
For some reason, Pelargir gets almost no attention. They didn't send levies to Minas Tirith (unlike everyone else), or else they sent surprisingly few: "some hundred." As with everything concerning Pelargir, the evidence is ambiguous.   
  
Tolkien specifies that these roughly hundred men are "[f]isher-folk of the Ethir spared from the ships." Given the care with which he identified every other company's origin, and even whether or not they had a lord (and who he was if they had one), why would he not say that these were men that Pelargir had levied and spared for Minas Tirith? We don't even know who Pelargir's ruling lord or body is! If, though, one finds it reasonable to infer that these were men who answered to Pelargir, then considering that Lossarnach, whose major city isn't even mentioned, could've sent (unless hope exaggerates wildly) 2000 men (but only sent 200), some hundred men from a major city-state seems very low indeed (compare Dol Amroth, which sent over a thousand fully-equipped soldiers, including a large body of expensive knights, and had a much larger distance to cover).  
  
Aragorn did say he sent four thousand from Pelargir, which might seem to say that the bulk of the population stayed home to guard the river. However, taken with Legolas's words and the anonymous narrator's elsewhere, these seem not to be entirely, and perhaps not even mainly, composed of Pelargirites. The specific attribution is men "from the southern fiefs"; considering that Aragorn had Angborn send word far and wide to follow him and assemble at Pelargir, it's possible that the bulk of those four thousand came from other places and simply set out as a single body from Pelargir, following Lord Angbor.   
  
So we don't know whether Pelargir sent anyone to Minas Tirith initially, nor how many (if any) of the second wave of reinforcements were from Pelargir.   
  
Then there's the question of the city's status after Sauron's opening onslaught. Was it captured? Was it breached at all? Here, it seems to me that our evidence is circumstantial, and comes more from side-comments and what isn't said than from direct statements.   
  
The most direct evidence we have of significant Haradric incursion into the city's territory are the Haradric ships "drawn up" on the near shore (suggesting they got through all Pelargir's naval defenses and landed troops on the shores at least). There are also smaller Haradric craft on fire (suggesting semi-successful resistance from Pelargir). These points in themselves prove little but that one side at least is likely to have archers, and that the invader is likely to have gotten men on the ground to surround the city.   
  
Indirectly, however, the length of engagement of the Grey Company and the Army of the Dead suggests freeing Pelargir was a more involved process than one might expect, and this suggests in turn that the city was taken at least in part. Legolas says that to get to Pelargir, they hunted their foes a day and a night, and his general description of the colors upon reaching Pelargir suggest they reached it at dawn; but despite the fact that Gimli said no one could resist the Dead, it still apparently took all day to secure the entire site. This is gleaned from the comment that "Ere that dark day ended none of the enemy were left": the wording suggests a struggle that took most of the day, but which ended before nightfall (though not very much before nightfall - if one has to mention the end of the day to limit the time frame, chances are high that there's a reason for that).   
  
Yet Tolkien never speaks of anything but a battle for the ships. He never talks about the City, though what else could take all day to subdue? Given that the Dead inspire such terror, using them in a city, where civilians might panic, seems like a bad idea, forcing Aragorn to wait for an early wave of reinforcements before digging out entrenched opposition. A second possibility is that he and the Grey company had to wait while Pelargir's surviving forces fought their way out past the Corsairs who'd made it into the city before the Dead took out their ship-bound comrades.   
  
Of the two possibilities, the former seems less likely, given that only later that evening are Angbor and the reinforcements he had to that point gathered said to arrive. Which leaves the latter possibility, since unless the Dead were used, thirty-odd soldiers would have no chance of evicting an army that had entrenched itself. But if all Haradrim not within the city already were driven into the river and drowned or chased downstream, leaving the remaining city defenders to force the remaining invaders out to flee or drown, or else to destroy them, then that might help explain the apparent delay between the arrival of the Grey Company and the complete elimination of any Haradric presence in or around Pelargir.  
  
A final point possibly suggesting that the city was at least partly captured comes from what Tolkien does _not_ tell us about it: we never find out who Pelargir's lord is. The men who march from Pelargir are under Lord Angbor's command. If these really were Pelargirites, why wouldn't Pelargir send an authority of its own to lead its people, instead relying on Angbor to lead, even though he isn't beholden to Pelargir so far as we know? Did something happen to Pelargir's leadership?   
  
So with "Ghost" as a prompt, and all of these considerations in mind, my question ended up being: what's up with the funky timing and silence at Pelargir, Tolkien? What could have happened there that would explain all of these things?   
  
And how can I make this about Haradrim and civil discord in Gondor? (Because I like Haradrim and civil discord in Gondor.)  
  
All material cited comes from the chapters "The Last Debate" and "Minas Tirith" in _Return of the King_.   
  


**Notes to material found in the chapters themselves**

  
1\. _Thy roses testify_ : rose symbolism from leading poems of [_For Want of Roses_](http://www.tolkienfanfiction.com/Story_Read_Head.php?STid=1036).   
  
2\. _The Precepts_ are my fanonical sacred book of the Haradrim, first mentioned in [_Giving Gifts._](http://astele.co.uk/stories/chapter.cfm?stid=1870)  
  
3\. _Ena uban za'an ahn-bairtan halota'ane din_ : Ta'alsheen Haradric: "The under-that-sun-not-born."  
  
4\. _Nai A-lehanoi Ta'alsheenoi_ : "From the Ta'alsheen A-lehani." In my fanonical world, the _a-lehani_ are a variant sect of the dominant Haradric religion, and the Ta'alsheen a large tribal subgroup in Harad.  
  
5\. _Eni chudane eni enai tarakhenu t'hole_ : Ta'alsheen Haradric: "The tarks' bitches we!"  
  
6\. "With it, or on it": "τεκνον, η ταυταν η επι ταυτας" = "Child, come home carrying that shield, or on it" – Spartan mother's admonition to her son.  
  
7\. _March 10, 3019: Throw_ : Thanks, ecrm, for your analysis of Pelargir's defenses, which led me to Constantinople. I have also tweaked my analysis of Tolkien's silence about Pelargir to reflect our discussion.   
  
8\. _March 13, 3019: Throw_ and _March 13, 3019: Ghost_ II: The unabridged text, which is Gimli's account of the relief of Pelargir by the Army of the Dead, runs more than a page in length. I chopped it up and elided considerably to get the parts I wanted within range of each other. See "The Last Debate", RoTK for the material that went into these two drabbles.


	27. March 6-8, 3019: Coil

From south-wall to keep, Pelargir was alert: from its walls Anduin was under watch.

In the Rows, war-rumor spread; barricades were readied, trebuchets manned. And guardsmen trained with city levies – save in Southron Town.

Varendur discussed barricades and discipline, promised men place, but uneasily. For his captain cautioned: others would decide the best use of Haradrim.

_Use them but_ somehow _!_ Varendur pleaded, for suspicion bred true and _worse_ : bred resentment, deepened dangerous divisions.

Cats sometimes brought lizards, thinking to please, and the scolding broom surprised them.

Men, Varendur darkly thought, were cats, save that after brooms, they failed of surprise...


	28. March 12-13, 3019: Throw

The night passed in fire and mayhem. The south-wall breached, the chain-boom drowned, Corsair ships docked within the city, spilled men forth to take Pelargir row by hard-fought row.

For the city's defenders retreated from barricade to barricade, paid high to make their enemy pay to measure: Pelargir's lord and heir were slain. Many went missing: Chodakh, between the first and second barricade; Varendur fell behind, wounded, and was lost. None had seen Chadhi or Menarion since the wall had been breached.

Yet the night held other perils: ere dawn came Corsairs driven east, bringing word: _the Dead have risen..._


	29. March 8-9, 3019: Coil

_The Precepts_ , "The Golden Scrolls": _**Set no man between his kin and his khan.**_

_Let none test him, whose kin and khan do not agree! Let him flee hooked tongues and touch the altar, that the Sacred Fire save him._

_Shall not blood carry taints? But who shall test it? Seek not, blood will speak._

* * *

No one knew Dhiav Butcher's business that night. Men found his body before the shrine, but why and how, none knew. The guardsmen found no witnesses.

"Could've been anyone," Varendur sighed.

"Tell them that!" Menarion muttered, as Pelargir's Haradrim gathered to mourn and malign...


	30. March 14-18, 3019: Ghost

Rescue came and then departed to save another city. As Pelennor bled, Pelargir burned and buried. Before the people, the Lady of Pelargir barrowed her lord and son, with many who fell upon the walls.

But the Haradric Quarter became one great pyre for those slain within the Rows. Dhauroš's widow surrendered her husband and sons, and Ajhinaš Chadhi; but her daughters sent their brothers to the flames. They burned Menarion there, and Varendur. For three nights, the ashes mingled.

Afterward, Dúnedain called "The Commons" and "Hearthstone Row" what Haradrim named _Hilathro Nai Ahnaneroi_ – that is, "House of Holocausts."


End file.
